Air Assault Team - Armada - Figures

Two of the first three sets on Mini-Cons are repainted for the fourth wave of Armada. The Air Assault Team rehashes the Air Defense Team with an improved color scheme. This review is a rewrite of my Air Defense Team review, noting the color changes and aesthetic appeal.

Runway
At a little over 2 ½” in length, Runway resembles a sleek transport jet. He is mostly a cream color with some with gold and black trim. His undercarriage, the robot arms and legs, are black as is the landing gear. The neat part, still, in this mode is that he has retractable landing gear in the front. The robot legs are rather bulky looking in this form. Each leg has a Powerlinx notch for use with the Autobots and Decepticons.

Transformation is fairly easy. Retract the landing gear; flip down the legs and arms. Flip the head up and the rear engines down. Runway now stands just under 2 ½”. He features eight points of articulation. His elbows, hips, and knees move, his head can pivot back and forth, and his waist can pivot slightly as well. Runway is more balance in color in robot mode. He seems to have an almost equal balance of black and cream. The gold paint for his eyes doesn't show up too well though. Still, the detailing is very nice considering the size.

Jetstorm
Like Runway, Jetstorm is primarily comprised of clear cream plastic. His secondary color is purple which covers the front cockpit section, tailfin and trim on the wings. Jetstorm looks to be similar to a Concorde jet, but I’m still no aviation expert. He also features the front landing gear. However, Jetstorm has only one Powerlinx notch in the center of his undercarriage.

Jetstorm’s transformation is a bit more involved that Runway's. Retract the landing gear and flip the front of the jet back. Unsnap the legs from the back of the jet, swing them down and rotate the lower legs down and forward. Swing the arms done and flip out the lower arms. Push the tail fin up and swing around to form the chest. In robot mode, Jetstorm stands at 2 ¼” and features eight points of articulation: shoulders, elbows, hips and knees. His chest plate is painted gold. His arms are cream and black while his legs are solid black. Again, the detailing is fantastic for something so small. His face resembles those of the Generation 2 Cyberjets, the Hooligan mold in particular.

Sonar
Resembling a futuristic space shuttle, Sonar is the shortest of the bunch at just over 2” in length. He hides the robot parts very well. In fact, the only kibble is the Dark Saber handle underneath. Sonar is mostly Black with purple highlighting his wings, nose and underbelly. He would easily fit in with the Decepticons. The cockpit windows are painted gold and his smaller fins are molded in black. Unfortunately , his robot face is visible in the rear of the shuttle. The sword hilt provides Sonar with two Powerlinx connectors.

To transform, pull the front of the shuttle out and separate. Push the nose halves outward and rotate so the cockpit windows are facing out. Flip the hilt to the back, fold the arms down and move the head up. In robot mode, Sonar is mostly purple and black with some cream parts in his upper legs and back. He’s still shorter than the rest at just a little over 2”. Like the others in his team, he has eight articulation points: shoulders, elbows, hips, and ankles.

Form Blazing Sword... Again!
To form the Dark Saber, make sure to start off with all three Microns in vehicle mode. Separate Sonar’s legs as before, but leave the cockpit section alone. Fold Jetstorm’s front section back and attach to Sonar. You can also bring Jetstorm's robot legs down and connect them into the Powerlink ports on Sonar. This helps to stabilize the sword and clear the blade of some kibble. Then simply attach Runway’s engines to Jetstorm’s and you’re done.

Dark Saber
Measuring 5 ¼” from the tip of the handle to the tip of the blade, this version of Dark Saber looks is completely opaque as opposed to the initial release. While I think that the cream parts work better than the straight clear parts, the other colors just don't do anything for me in this mode. With all the robot undercarriage from Runway and Jetstorm, the blade of the sword is very think, though with Jetstorm's legs moved down it helps the appearance a lot. Unfortunately, this version doesn't light up at all.

Overall
While the Dark Saber mode is a bit disappointing, each of the Mini-Cons are remarkable on their own. The parts of Jetstorm’s cockpit still seem a bit brittle, so be careful there. These are good toys that are worth picking up.